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Charting the variety of aspirations of Romani/Gypsy groups in Turkey.

There is a wide variety of Romani/Gypsy and “Gypsy-like” groups in Turkey who define their own and each other’s identity according to different and sometimes conflicting linguistic, cultural, religious and occupational characteristics. Some have memories of migrating from other countries; others see themselves as long term residents of Anatolia or Thrace. This research seeks first to map this variety at least at the level at which such information exists for other Balkan EU candidate countries, and secondly to examine the ways in which group identity is sustained and conceptualised, and in particular to see if there is a difference in “diasporic identity” and the collective aspirations of Roma/Gypsy groups between Anatolia and other parts of the former Ottoman empire. This research will co-operate with the ESRC-supported Romani linguistics-mapping project at Manchester University, and with several other projects around Roma and Turkish EU accession, and historical investigation of Roma diasporic identity.